The Spiritual Hierarchies

Schmidt Number: S-1981

On-line since: 16th August, 2005

LECTURE 9

It is only natural that after such an exposition as that of
yesterday, numerous questions should arise, and that with regard to
representation of such universal all-embracing truths about the
Cosmos, heard for the first time, some things should remain
incomprehensible. I beg you always to remember that — I have
already said that here things explained are not the result of any
speculation, or of any sort of artificial scheme, but are derived
from real facts, which are called the facts of the Akashic Record;
and it is only later that these facts can be gathered together into a
sort of system. But one question which may arise in many minds must
be answered to-day: the question as to the planets which have
accomplished their task. In a certain way we traced yesterday the
origin of the life of a planet up to its end, up to the time when it
became a separate, visible, planet. Now someone might affirm that
some of these planets we see in the heavens did not originate from
the time described yesterday, or are not now coming into being. We
must clearly realise that a new epoch begins for a planet when it has
reached that point which we described yesterday. Let us suppose we
wished to follow the origin of a planet, not as it was with ancient
Saturn when it alone was there, but as it was when the formation of
our Earth took place. Ancient Saturn was then formed again, as a
repetition; so that after the evolution of ancient Saturn, when
ancient Sun and ancient Moon were all three finished, the evolution
of the earth first began in the form of a huge warmth or fire-body,
on which was repeated all that had happened during the ancient Saturn
evolution. Then came a time when, under the influence of the Zodiacal
region called the Lion, the single planet Saturn (that which we call
Saturn to-day) detached itself from that mighty self-revolving globe
of fire, thus reaching its highest point. It was in this manner that
the single planet Saturn originated.

Now, you must not picture to yourselves that the pacifying influence
of the Lion brought the forward motion of Saturn to an end when that
point of time was reached. No, only the inner movements which existed
formerly were then stopped. Saturn had grown into a being which drew
into it all that was formerly distributed in the circumference, and
united it all within itself. All this happened though the influence
of the Lion; but the large globe, from which this Saturn was
detached, contracted, and became a smaller globe. Whilst this whole
globe contracted inwardly and after the influence (from the Lion) had
been able to work and the inward motions been brought to rest, Saturn
retained to a certain degree the movement which it had originally
received. Formerly Saturn used its own impulse for its movements;
for it was necessary for it to continue the movement; to move on
further as by a swimming motion. When that globe had withdrawn, it
continued to move by itself, although the inward motion was stopped.
And that self-movement, after it had received the first impulse, is
the movement according to which Saturn is revolving to-day.

It happened in a similar way with Jupiter. For what had just been
described happened when the earth began its formation. Then
differentiation in the globe took place when it began to contract,
inwardly. Then also occurred the killing of the single globes under
the constellation of the Scorpion. They crowded on top of one
another. Through this began for each their own inner life. After
Jupiter, as a mighty living being, had been, so to speak, killed;
there began within him the life of the single being belonging to him,
and the whole globe having contracted, now moved on, after having
found by this means the impulse for movement within itself.

That which we have been considering to-day as the movements of
Saturn, of Jupiter, etc. was a result, a consequence, which arose
after the formative process. — which I described yesterday —
had come to an end.

Another difficulty seems to have arisen because I said that the
second planet which detached itself from our earth in the course of
its evolution was Jupiter, the third Mars, whereas the sequence in
time which I described was that the Saturn development came first,
then the Sun development, and then the Moon's. But, this is
completely justified; for, with the planets of the present day, we
have to do with what took place as a repetition, during the fourth
evolution of the earth. When the first Saturn was formed, Saturn was
there alone; during the Sun development (the second globe), the
conditions were such that we have to speak of a Sun. But when after
the Saturn development, the Sun developments continued, the whole
process of Saturn came to an end with the Sun, so that when we look
backwards at those first planetary developments of our earth, the
ancient Saturn, Sun and Moon, we must realise that they were finished
with once and for all. But when we speak of the Earth's
development it is not so. Saturn first arises, then, by way of
repetition — the Sun; but everything progresses further
inwardly, it is not yet finished. Jupiter is left behind as a relic
of the repetition of the Sun-development. Then the earth is a
repetition of the Moon development, which — if we regard the
whole of evolution — was then at an end. But as regards earthly
evolution the Moon is not finished. Mars remains behind after this
repetition.

Thus we see, that the planets of the present day which are visible to
us in the heavens must be thought of as having originated during the
time which we call the fourth period of the evolution of the earth.
These are the things over which we must ponder. It is impossible to
touch on everything, when one speaks of the whole world.

Image 8Click image for large view

In speaking of Saturn, I spoke of a globe of fire or of a large fiery
egg, and then of a revolving motion. And it was in fact originally a
sort of ball or egg. Whilst that globe, which corresponds to the very
first Saturn condition, is revolving, the following is gradually
formed; it acquires a sort of girdle, which does not surround the
whole egg, but which is there as a sort of broad band. And within
that belt these single forms collect which are being formed all
around.

(Diagram.) This belt formation is a general Cosmic
law. This law — which rests on an accumulation in the form of
an equator or belt — you can see exemplified in the Cosmos, as
far as your sight can reach, in the Milky Way, which owes its
existence to that law. When you look at the Milky Way, stretching
like an external belt around the heavens, with the stars shining
sparsely in between, you must think of its being the result of that
law which causes things to draw together
into a belt as soon as a rotatory process begins. Our world system,
as we have it, has really the form of a bean; it is not round, as is
usually accepted, and the belt is drawn around as a distant equator.

You must also think of such a belt when a planet originates.

If — trivially speaking — one took an egg desiring to
make a diagram on it of these various conditions, one would have
first to paint such a belt around it, with red if you like. One would
not paint the whole egg red, but only just a belt. Along this belt
assemble those bodies which were selected to form later a heavenly
body. One would have to draw on it a point where all these were
gathered together.

Thus you see that the configuration and the distribution of the stars
as we see them in space, is a result of the action of the spiritual
Beings or Hierarchies. For when we speak of the contraction of large
masses, we must realise that this does not happen of itself, but that
it is brought about by the action of those Beings of the higher
Hierarchies which we have described. And when we take a general view
of all that has been described, we may say: When ancient Saturn was
in formation, when all that mighty mass of fire out of which all our
solar system has arisen organised itself into ancient Saturn, the
Spirits of Personality were passing through their human stage of
existence; during the Sun formation the Archangels or Spirits of Fire
were passing through their human stage; during the Moon evolution the
Angels, and on the earth Man, is passing through his human existence.
But it must be realised that this Man had also taken part in all that
happened before. What is called the physical body to-day had its
first foundations during the very earliest Saturn formation. That
physical body was not as yet interpenetrated by an etheric body, or
by an astral body; but it was already so organised that after passing
through all the transformations it experienced later, it could become
the bearer of the spiritual earth-man of to-day. Very slowly and
gradually was this physical body organised during the ancient Saturn
evolution, and, whilst ancient Saturn itself was being formed, the
different signs of the Zodiac slowly revolved, and the human body
member by member, took on its earliest form. When Saturn stood under
the sign of the Lion the beginning of the heart was formed; the ribs
or the thoracic cage were started while Saturn was under the sign of
the Crab; the foundation of the symmetrical shape of man, that is the
reason for his being symmetrically built on two sides, arose while
Saturn was under the constellation of Gemini. Thus we follow piece by
piece the formation of the human body, and when we look up to that
part of the Zodiac, where Aries the Ram is, we can say: The upper
part of our head originated when ancient Saturn stood under the sign
of Aries; the foundation of our organ of speech, when Saturn stood
under the sign of the Bull. And when you think of man distributed
thus, you can see in the Zodiacal circle the creative forces for each
of the human organs.

This was represented pictorially in the old Mysteries, and the Zodiac
was drawn as you see it here on the ceiling of this hall. By chance —
but there is no such thing as chance — we have met in a hall
which is adorned above by the signs of the Zodiac. Formerly the
Zodiac was not designed by depicting the animal form corresponding to
each sign, but the different human members were drawn in the
corresponding region of the heavens: for instance, for Aries a head;
further on, for the Bull, the region of the throat; that which most
of all expresses symmetry — the arms, for Gemini; the thoracic
cage, for the Crab; the heart, for the Lion; and thus they came to
the lower parts of the legs, for the Waterman; and to the feet, for
Pisces. Think of such a Zodiacal circle as a man designed out there
in the Cosmos, then you have that which corresponds to the powers of
the Thrones, Cherubim and Seraphim who created the first beginnings
of the physical human body. This is the great Cosmic Man, the Man who
is found in all the World Myths, and all the national legends or
sagas, out of whom single individuals of the earth are composed in
the most varied forms. Think of the giant YMIR who is spread out in
the great Cosmos; microcosmic man is formed out of this giant. Up
above is the macrocosmic man who is a Creator, who, out there,
comprises all that man has within him. Profound truth lies in the
depths of such representations, truth which comes to light more or
less imperfectly, according to the degrees of the clairvoyant power
of the nations. It also shines through that wisdom which finds its
outward expression in the old Testament. It shines in that wisdom
which, as the old Hebrew mystery-teaching, leads back to that Mystery
teaching which was the foundation of the Old Testament — to
Adam Cadmon of the Kabbala. The macrocosmic Man is none other than
the one we have now designed in the Cosmos; only we must form our
conceptions of him in the right way.

What I have now explained to you, and which culminated in the
teaching of the macrocosmic man, is a teaching which in fact includes
the deepest cosmic mysteries, and which in the future will gradually
flow into the general education of humanity at large.

To-day we are still far from understanding this teaching; and if
anyone who is merely a scientist had listened to these lectures, he
would have surely held this audience for something other than an
intelligent company of people. We are very far from understanding
these things to-day. But we are now at the beginning of an epoch,
when the facts which are discovered in accordance with the fantastic
theories of modern science, will compel men to seek these truths of
the great primeval wisdom. The mystery for instance, of the process
of conception, about which people speculate so erroneously to-day,
will never be known until the teaching of the macrocosmic man
regarding that same process is understood. Precisely that into which
true Mystery enters, and as a real Mystery eludes the instruments of
modern research, will receive illumination to the minutest detail.
For how small, in relation to the Cosmos, is the cell wherein
fructification takes place! The mysteries of the great Cosmos will
alone solve that which takes place in the smallest cells; nothing
else can solve the problems they contain. The investigations of
external science in relation to this problem are not without use,
they have a certain merit, but they are childish in comparison with
the great mystery which is contained there, and which will only be
solved when people realise that the answer to the happenings in a
centre is to be found in the great circumference. Hence, all teachers
of the Mysteries said: If you want to understand the centre,
investigate the circumference, for it contains the key.

When you remember that each world globe retains its movement, after
it has, so to speak, come to a conclusion, when it is complete; you
will also understand what must be called the Karma of each of these
globes.

From the moment when each of these planets has come of itself to an
end, the beings which belong to it have to take part in its
dissolution, in its disappearance from all connection with the world.
Thus if we follow up the ancient Saturn evolution, we have an
advancing process up to the fusion of the whole globe of warmth; or
you might consider it a descending one for it is a process of
condensation. In the moment when Saturn begins to revolve — we
are speaking of the first Saturn development — the Saturn globe
is completed, all the conditions are accomplished with which it is
concerned. The spirits who are assigned to it have to consider at
this moment of its dissolution, what has been built up during its
formation, and that is Karma. This cannot be escaped; things have to
be dissolved again in the same way in which they were put together.
The Karma of the first half of evolution, fulfills itself in the
second half. The formation of worlds is the preparation of Karma; the
passing away of worlds, in the broadest sense of the word, is nothing
else than pain under the action of Karma, and again the wiping out of
that same Karma. As in big things, so it is also in small things,
with every planet. For each planet mirrors faithfully the conditions
of the great world. You can see the same process in a nation. Think
of a nation rising in its youth, full of strength, of activity, of
energy; think of this nation as producing epoch after epoch the most
varied elements of civilisation and of culture. This has all to reach
its highest point; but whilst all this is accumulating, the Karma of
the nation is also accumulating. Just as Karma accrued during the
Saturn development, and we have to take into consideration what had
been brought about, so Karma accrues to a nation during the time its
civilisation is being built up. This Karma is at its highest point,
at its strongest, when the nation has given birth to all the
primeval, elemental forces.

Now we have seen that guiding Beings are everywhere. We have seen
with the earth, how the higher spiritual Beings — Angels,
Archangels, Archai — descended, and at a time when humanity
could not as yet help itself, they guided it until it reached a
certain height. These are the spiritual beings of the Hierarchies who
had reached their maturity in earlier times; but when this height is
reached, when those Beings who had descended from the heights reach
their goal, then other Beings have to become the leaders and guides
of the said nations. When nations have to rise in a certain way still
higher than their highest point, leading personalities have to give
themselves up of their own free will to become the bearers of higher
spiritual Beings; only then does it become possible to lead the
nation a few stages beyond that which was originally planned for it.
But in such cases one thing must happen; those who descend into the
beings who have to lead the nation to a still higher point of
civilisation, must take upon themselves all the Karma which the
nation has been accumulating. This is the important law as regards
taking upon oneself the Karma of nations and of races. From a
definite point of time the guiding personalities have themselves to
bear all the Karma of those nations and races. That was the essential
reason that such individualities as Hermes, for instance, had to take
upon them — their nations Karma, which had accumulated up to
then. On each planet, such things are the reflected images of great
Cosmic processes.

But we have reflected images which go further still. We have seen
that the Thrones became Thrones, only because from created beings
they themselves became Creators, that they were enabled to pass from
a condition of taking to one of giving. The Thrones had once upon a
time passed through their development in other world systems, and had
progressed so far that they were able to let their own Substance
stream out from them.

It is a higher grade of development to be able to
give, to bring sacrifices, than merely to store up for oneself all
that the Cosmos gives. This is again mirrored in human life. What is
this human development? Look backwards in spirit to the Atlantean and
Lemurian times, and then look forwards! Man receives the physical
body, the etheric and astral bodies and the Ego, and then again the
Ego works back on the other members, transforming the astral body,
the etheric and physical bodies, into Manas, Budhi, and Atma, into
Spirit self, spirit-Life and Spirit-man. Primeval wisdom has always
taught that man transforms his astral body
in such a way that this astral body consists at first partly of Manas
and partly of the old astrality, but that later it becomes
completely transformed, completely penetrated by the work and
action of the Ego. Let us take a man who has not yet reached that
grade of development when the astral body is completely penetrated by
the work of the Ego; almost all men, with very few exceptions, are in
that condition. That which man has already transformed goes with him
through all eternity; that which he has not yet changed in which his
Ego has had no part, must leave him, as a sort of astral shell, after
he has passed through Kama-Loka; that shell dissolves in the astral
world, not without its having brought about considerable mischief if
as an astral body, it had bad desires and evil passions. Thus we can
say that the development of man consists in. his leaving always less
and less behind him in the astral world. Let us follow the process;
the man dies. Soon after death the etheric body is dissolved; and the
extract of it remains. The man passes through. Kama-Loka, and the
untransformed shell detaches itself; that which has been re-worked
goes with man through all eternity, it is brought back into each new
incarnation. The more perfect the man is, the less there will be of
those remnants left in the astral world; till at last he will have
progressed so far that he leaves nothing of his astral body in
Kama-Loka, so far — that he can injure no living being on earth
through the remnants he leaves in Kama-Loka. Such. a man has then the
possibility of seeing into spiritual worlds. For it is not possible
to reach this condition without having reached a certain degree of
clairvoyance in the Astral. The whole astral body has then been
spiritualised, it has become Spirit-Self, and the whole of it is
taken with him by the man to the spiritual world. Formerly that which
was bad was left behind, now the whole astral body can be taken with
him into all futurity. And in the moment when the astral body is so
far advanced that it is completely transformed, in that moment the
whole of this new astral shape is impressed upon the etheric body, so
that the etheric body becomes a counterpart of the astral body. The
etheric body does not need to be as yet quite transformed, but that
is impressed upon it which has been refashioned in the astral body.
You see, that we have here described a particularly exalted being,
one who is eminently far advanced, because he has developed the whole
of the Spirit-self. This Being is called Nirmana-Kaya in Eastern
Science; for his astral body, his astral Kaya, has reached the stage
when it leaves no remnants in the astral world.

Let us now go further. Man can always develop further and further; at
last he influences or transforms his etheric body, then his physical
body. What happens when the etheric and the physical body are
transformed so that they are ruled by the man? When the etheric body
is thus changed, when man has not only ‘Spirit Self’ in
the astral body, but Budhi or ‘Life Spirit’ has also been
gradually developed in his etheric body, and when this Life-Spirit or
Budhi impresses itself upon the physical body — then yet a
further stage of development is reached.

Man then reaches the point when his etheric body also leaves nothing
behind it, so that he retains this etheric body in the same shape
through all time, the etheric body in which he has formed the
Life-Spirit or Budhi.

Through such transmutations man becomes more and more ruler over his
astral and his etheric bodies. Such control enables him also to
direct in a certain way his astral and etheric bodies. One who has
not yet brought his astral body under the rule of his Ego must
certainly wait until he has come thus far; but the man who already is
lord of his astral and etheric bodies, has them at his free disposal.
He can say: ‘Because with my “I,” I have passed
through so many incarnations which have taught me to transform my
astral and etheric bodies, I am now enabled, when I have to return to
earth again, to form for myself out of astral and etheric substances,
an astral and an etheric body which will be equally perfect.’
He is also enabled to sacrifice his own astral and etheric bodies, to
pass them on to others. You now see, that there are individualities
who, because they have become rulers of their astral and etheric
bodies, are able to sacrifice these bodies, because they have learnt
how to build them. If they wish to return to earth again, they will
themselves form them anew out of the existing material. The
perfection to which they have attained, they pass on to other
personalities who have to perform certain tasks in the world. Thus
personalities of later days have woven into them, organised into
them, the astral and etheric bodies of these who lived in times of
yore. You see that when this happens the personality of olden times
did not only influence the time in which he lived, but that his
influence works on also into the future.

Thus, for instance, Zarathustra who was capable of governing his
astral body, and who later passed it over to Hermes, could say to
himself: ‘I live, but in the future I will not only work as I
do now, as a person in the outer world, but, I will penetrate the
astral body of the Egyptian Hermes, he in whom the Egyptian epoch of
civilisation has its beginning.’ Such a personality has a body,
a Kaya, which does not only operate in the place and time when it
lives, but which acts into the future, and gives law unto the future.
Law for the future is called Dharma. Such a body is called
Dharmakaya. These are names, expressions which one often meets with
in Eastern science. You have here the true explanation as it is
always given in primeval wisdom.

Now if we look back at the many things which have passed before our
minds during these days, our souls might well put the question: What
is that, which, up to now, we have really called man? Man is a name
given to a certain stage of development. We have found that the
Spirits of Personality were men on Saturn; that even the Thrones must
have been men once upon a time; we have learnt that man progresses
further, and rises to higher Beings; we have learnt to know the first
stages of the ascent in the Angels, Archangels, etc.; we have learnt
to know in them Beings, who are sacrificing something; we have seen
the beginning of the sacrifice which is found at its highest point in
the Thrones. The first gleam of creative activity we have seen in
those who are the leaders of nations and races, who know how to
influence their own bodies in such a way that they can let some of
their influence stream out. As the Thrones let their essence flow
out, so in another way the Nirmana-Kayas let their own bodies flow
out into the future, for the sake of future individualities, who
could not have reached such a far point in their evolution, if they
had not received embodied into them, what the former Beings gave out
for them.

Thus we build up our idea of evolution from the point when it begins,
up to the time when one can give out, can create. The idea of the
creator rises before our spiritual sight, and we say to ourselves,
each separate being develops from the creature to the creator. The
Archangels developed to the human stage on ancient Sun, the Spirits
of Personality on ancient Saturn, the Angels on the ancient Moon, we
men, upon the earth; and so it will continue always, in all times,
Beings will be developing into men. Does all that continue endlessly?
Is it really only a succession of circles, in which is repeated on
the Sun that which previously took place on Saturn, only that a
number of beings are added to the former ones with each circle? Is it
really all, that out of originally helpless creatures beings should
ever be developing into those who can sacrifice themselves? This is
not at all the case! But the great question arises: Is the humanity
which was experienced on Saturn by the Spirits of Personality, the
humanity experienced on the Sun by the Archangels, and that
experienced by the Angels on Mars, are these all the same kind of
humanity as that which we are now experiencing upon earth? When we
consider the nature of the Angels, for instance, do we see in them
the image of what we shall be in our next Jupiter epoch? Do we see in
the spirits of fire only the image of those beings we shall ourselves
be in Venus? Can it really be said with reason that, in reaching to
higher stages in the evolution of the world, and rising even into the
Hierarchies, we shall develop only into Beings which exist already?
Has our path of evolution been trod already by others? These are the
great questions which each of you may ask who has let these lectures
act impartially upon his soul. Have we only to do with a humanity
which is externally repeated in the same way, so that we are now as
the Spirits of Personality were on the Saturn, the Fire Spirits or
Archangels on the Sun, the Angels on the Moon? For us this might be
important, but for the higher Gods it would only be a multiplication
of their own creations, and they would not have achieved any special
progress. But there is another question: Will men, just because they
have become men upon the earth, be enabled some day, perhaps, to
develop into beings capable of something of which the Angels are
incapable, something of which also the Archangels and the Spirits of
Personality are incapable? Has the whole of Creation learnt something
through having produced men after the Archangels, and after the
Angels? Has Creation made progress through that? Is it possible that
man, because he was fitted to descend deeper, will, therefore, have
gained the possibility, the right, to rise still higher? We ask
ourselves this as a sort of consequential question. The remainder of
our considerations must be dedicated to this question: What is the
whole significance and importance of man in the Cosmos and his
relation to the Hierarchies? What will Man become in the succeeding
stages of the Hierarchies?